Heat exchangers have been produced in the past which are made up of a plurality of stacked, hollow plate pairs or tubes for the flow of one fluid therethrough. The plate pairs or tubes often have raised end bosses located at opposed ends to space the plate pairs or tubes apart and form common flow manifolds for feeding fluid through the plate pairs or tubes. The thus spaced-apart plate pairs or tubes allow for the transverse flow of another fluid, such as air, between the plate pairs or tubes, and cooling fins are often located in the spaces between the plate pairs or tubes to enhance the heat transfer co-efficient of the heat exchanger.
Sometimes, it is desirable to provide inlet and outlet fittings located in these manifolds between the plate pairs or tubes to force the fluid to flow along a predetermined path or circuit using a preselected combination or order of flow amongst the plate pairs or tubes. It is also desirable sometimes to divide the stack of plate pairs or tubes into separate modules, each having its own inlet and outlet, so that there is, in effect multiple heat exchangers or modules in one unitary structure.
One way of accomplishing these desired results in the past has been to use spacers and perhaps special or unique plates or tubes for some of the plate pairs or tubes where the end bosses in the special plates or tubes are of reduced height or possibly eliminated altogether to accommodate the inlet or outlet fittings. Another way is to use special, extra high fins, or double or triple layers of fins, between some of the plate pairs or tubes to make room for the inlet or outlet fittings between the plate or tube end bosses where the inlet or outlet fittings are to be placed. A difficulty with these methods, however, is that several unique or odd-shaped components are necessary which make it difficult to assemble the heat exchangers and result in many errors being made by positioning the wrong components in the wrong locations. The result is many defective or inoperative heat exchangers being produced.
The present invention minimizes the number of different types of components that must be used to produce a heat exchanger, yet easily accommodates different flow circuit configurations and sizes of inlet and outlet fittings by using a common mounting or end bracket dimensioned to accommodate a particular size of inlet or outlet fitting yet allowing for fins of the same fin height to be used.